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Evolution of Logos - The Roaring Puma

18 Apr 2016

Last week, we examined the evolution of the Adidas logo over the years.
In the second part of the series, we will look at another major sporting brand, Puma. Did you know that Adidas and Puma came from the same family?

Adolf 'Adi' Dassler, the founder of Adidas and Rudolf Dassler, the founder of Puma, were brothers. They first started “Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik“ (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory) in 1924. The brothers had a falling out in the years leading up to the second world war (they were both members of the Nazi party), and this finally led to the company being split into two 24 years later.

In the 1957, almost 10 years after its birth and huge popularity among football players, Rudolf Dassler introduced a sans-serif PUMA typeface, designing a word and picture emblem at the same time. One year later, the second brand logo, the one without the words, is patented: the “formstrip”, originally created to stabilize the foot inside the shoe, is now a typical PUMA trademark found on almost all PUMA shoes and is used as a design element on apparel products. This unmistakable formstrip was introduced as PUMA's trademark logo.

In the same year PUMA football boots are the only German-made football boots in the final of the World Cup in Sweden. PUMA celebrates the victory of the Brazilian team with an advertising campaign.

Another passing 10 years with mammoth success among sports stars and athletes, Lutz Backes, a cartoonist from Nuremberg, comes up with the ‘jumping cat’, which is still one of the most famous trademarks worldwide. The logo began to appear more frequently on all PUMA products such as bags and performance apparels.

Since 1979, the puma has been jumping across the right upper corner of the word logo and it has slightly changed over the years: the eye and nuzzle are gone, and the ears are more pronounced today. PUMA’s world famous ‘No. 1 logo’ is introduced.

The leaping Puma logo depicts the company’s corporate image and the durability of its products. The use of a bold font with the leaping cat on one side instantly casts an impression on the user of the product. The logo embodies agility as well as adventure thanks to the use of bold and daring logo design elements. With just minor changes, this 62-year old logo dominates, delivering a roaring message to athletes and sports enthusiast around the globe to be courageous and challenging, invoking the feelings of authority and confidence.

If you want to read more about the Dassler brothers' feud, take a look at
Family Feud: Adidas vs. Puma,
that goes into the story in much more detail.